Benji (1974)

Posted on February 10, 2025 | Leave a comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 8 out of 10

4-Word Review: Dog saves kidnapped children.

Benji (Higgins) is a stray dog who resides in an empty house that some consider haunted in the outskirts of a small town. He regularly visits Cindy (Cynthia Smith) and Paul (Allen Fiuzat) who are children who live in a big home with their father (Peter Breck) and housekeeper Mary (Patsy Garrett). The children want to keep the dog as their own, but the father refuses insisting that strays can carry diseases and therefore it wouldn’t be safe. One day three people (Deborah Walley, Christopher Connelly, Tom Lester) break into the abandoned home, but do not notice Benji, or his poodle companion Tiffany, who hide behind a table. The three, who are led by a fourth person named Mitch (Mark Slade), plot a kidnapping and to Benji’s shock it turns out to be the two children that are the victims. He tries to alert Mary and the father, but is unable to get them to understand until he comes up with a clever tactic to clue them in. Will he be able to get them and the police to catch-on soon enough before the kidnappers move the children out of the home and into an undisclosed location?

The film was a labor of love for writer/director/producer Joe Camp who worked in advertising before deciding to get into filmmaking. The inspiration came while he was watching Lady and the Tramp on TV and concluded that there weren’t enough quality children’s films out there and decided to attempt to change that. However, when he shopped his storyline around to the various studios it got roundly rejected, so he decided to use his background in marketing to make and distribute the film himself. It was made on a modest budget of $500,000 but ended up making $45 million.

Compared to other children’s films this is an improvement as both the children and adults are portrayed as being smart, realistic people. In other kiddie flicks it seems it always has to be one way or the other with the kids being the naive ones saying cutesy, silly things and the adults chuckling about it, or dispensing preachy ‘life lessons’, or its the kids that are in the know while the adults are out-of-touch, so it’s nice when both sides can be shown as sensible and even when there are disagreements it gets handled in a respectful manner. The soundtrack doesn’t have that cheesy, singsong saccharine quality like you usually hear in this type of genre, but is instead distinct, jazzy, and even toe-tapping.

It’s impressive how the film gets literally inside the head of the dog and you see everything, including the camera angles, from his point-of-view. Most other films with animals as characters don’t do that. Usually they get paired with a human friend/owner who helps ‘narrate’ what the animal is thinking, but here there’s none of that. I was thinking, but willing to forgive the moment when one of the kidnappers pulls out a gun and Benji reveals a frightened expression though animals really won’t know what a gun is, but director Camp smartly inserts a visual showing the dog encountering a gun in the past when police confront a robber and thus explaining why the dog would understand its danger, which other filmmakers wouldn’t have bothered to show, or even thought through.

I have only two criticisms. The first one is a relatively mild complaint dealing with the behavior of the bad guys, particularly Connelly and Lester’s characters who seem unrealistically spooked by the house even though two big, tough rugged guys who are streetwise enough to commit a bold kidnapping shouldn’t believe such childish things. When they broke into the house, they should’ve gone through the entire place including the upstairs to make sure no one else, including a possible vagrant, was residing there. Also, when the kids are kidnapped, the perpetrators should’ve worn masks, or blindfolded the kids, so as not to be identified later, which seems like something that should’ve been a no-brainer.

Spoiler Alert!

The biggest issue though is when Mitch kicks the little dog named Tiffany and it appears that he’s killed her. While it does show at the very end that she was only injured as the she hobbles out of the vet clinic wearing a cast on her tiny legs it is still very traumatic for a child to see such a violent act on a defenseless animal. I remember when I watched this movie at the age of 5 in the theaters, I cried all the way home afterwards. A few years later when we watched it again on Showtime with my younger brother and sister, they cried about it too. A scene like that, even if the dog is eventually shown as surviving, wasn’t necessary and the movie should’ve certainly been given a PG-rating as the G-rating is misleading.

My Rating: 7 out of 10

Released: October 17, 1974

Runtime: 1 Hour 25 Minutes

Rated G

Director: Joe Camp

Studio: Mulberry Square Releasing

Available: DVD, Blu-ray

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Posted in 70's Movies, Kidnapping Movies, Movies for the Whole Family, Movies that take place in Texas

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Any Which Way You Can (1980)

Posted on February 8, 2025 | Leave a comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 7 out of 10

4-Word Review: Betting on a fight.

Philo (Clint Eastwood) is still working as a trucker, still travels around with his pet orangutan Clyde, and still lives at home with his mother (Ruth Gordon) while getting involved in some bare-knuckle fights on the side to earn some extra money. He also continues to be harassed by the Black Widow biker gang who constantly hound him to even a past score. Things begin to change a bit when he meets back up with Lynn (Sondra Locke) who apologizes for her behavior from before and wants to rekindle their romance. Philo resists at first, but eventually the two get back together and she even moves-in with him in a spare room, but pressure mounts when fight handicapper Jack Beckman (Harry Guardino) comes-up with the idea of pairing Philo with Jack Wilson (William Smith), whose fighting skills mixes both martial arts and boxing. Jack figures it would be a match that would generate much betting interest and uses his men and money to convince Philo to take part in it. While Philo does initially agree he eventually backs out due to pressure from Lynn as she feels it’s too dangerous, but Jack, who has Mafia money riding on the fight, won’t take no for an answer and kidnaps Lynn in an effort to get Philo to reconsider. 

This is one of those sequels that’s a vast improvement over the first and much of the credit goes to Stanford Sherman, who wrote over 18 episodes for the 60’s ‘Batman’ TV-show and shows a good knack for balancing campy humor with interesting action. He’s also able to tie-in everything that goes on, so it doesn’t come off like a disconnected mess like with the first installment that had characters and situations coming-out of nowhere that wasn’t cohesive. Here each character has a purpose and everything that happens has a reason and connects with the main theme making for a much slicker production even when some of it gets silly.

Much more attention goes to the ape here though it’s not the same one as in the first film. That one was named Manis who was deemed to have grown too big for the part, so he got replaced by Buddha who has some amusing segments with his best moments coming when he tears up some cars, including one being driven by a bad guy, played by Michael Cavanaugh, as he’s trying to get away and another scene where he wears a dress and then ‘flashes’ an amorous hotel owner. However, in a book by Jane Goodall entitled ‘Visions of Caliban’ it was asserted that Buddha was badly beaten by his owner during the production after he stole some doughnuts on the set and was eventually clubbed to death forcing them to bring in a third ape named C.J. to do the publicity tour for the movie after filming had wrapped. 

Like in the first one the movie also features a lot of bare-knuckle brawls though these aren’t quite as interesting since Clint wins every one of them, so there’s never any tension. To keep it realistic, and give it better balance, they should’ve had him lose one, possible in humiliating style, and the rest of the movie could’ve been having him trying to defend his title and the audience would’ve been more emotionally invested in seeing him do it.  Would’ve been nice too had they not implemented that annoying punch sound effect that to me puts the fight at a cartoon level and I wished more movies from the period did it like The Whole Shootin’ Match, which didn’t feel the need to have that effect put in and thus actually made the fighting grittier and more intense in the process. 

While the film is way too long, there’s no reason for a runtime of 2-hours with such a slight and goofy plot, which should’ve have not been more than 85-minutes. However, it saves itself with some genuinely inspired moments including when real-life couple Logan and Anne Ramsey, who play a traveling husband and wife who stay in the hotel room next to the two apes whose noisy love making turn them on as does Clint and Sondra in adjacent room while Ruth and the elderly hotel clerk, played by Peter Hobbs, also make it in the motel office, I found to be quite amusing and almost worth the price of admission. The climactic bout between Clint and Smith and the way it galvanizes people from all over to witness it and bet money on it, including the Black Widow biker gang, who survive a ‘taring’ earlier, is good fun making it worth checking out on a slow night. 

My Rating: 7 out of 10

Released: December 17, 1980

Runtime: 1 Hour 56 Minutes

Rated PG

Director: Buddy Van Horn

Studio: Warner Brothers

Available: DVD, Blu-ray, Amazon Video, YouTube

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Posted in 80's Movies, Campy Comedy, Cult, Movies with Nudity, Sequels

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Every Which Way But Loose (1978)

Posted on February 6, 2025 | Leave a comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 4 out of 10

4-Word Review: A bare-knuckle brawler.

Philo (Clint Eastwood) is a truck driver still living with his mother (Ruth Gordon) and who compensates his income with bare-knuckle fights where people can make bets either on, or against him. He also travels around with an orangutan named Clyde whom he won as compensation for one of his fights. One day while waiting in his pick-up at a red light a biker gang known as The Black Widows and led by Cholla (John Quade) pull up beside them and begin harassing the ape. This creates a confrontation, and the bikers seek a vendetta on Philo determined to challenge him to a fight and begin stalking him until he agrees. Philo is also being chased by Putnam (Gregory Walcott), a cop upset at Philo over a misunderstanding that occurred while the two were in a bar. Meanwhile Philo is also trying to find Lynn (Sandra Locke) a singer he fell for who moved away to Colorado with her boyfriend, but Philo travels there in an attempt to find her and win her back, but Putnam and the Black Widows are in hot pursuit. 

The script is the product of Jeremy Joe Kronsberg, who after watching Smokey and the Bandit, became ‘inspired’ to write this one and was convinced it would make the perfect follow-up vehicle for star Burt Reynolds. However, when he shopped it around to the studios, they all rejected it, so he decided to send it off to Clint Eastwood’s secretary in the hopes that Clint, being good friends with Burt, would show him the script and convince him to do it. Instead to everyone’s surprise Clint, who was looking to broaden his appeal, decided to take on the starring duties himself and even cast Kronsberg as one of the biker gang members.

Many of those close to Clint thought it was a bad career move, and the critics savaged the film upon its initial release, but at the box office, which is what really counts, it did very well and became one of the highest grossing films of Eastwood’s career. A major reason for this is its rural appeal where everyone is essentially a redneck and white collar, college educated suburbanites just don’t exist. Instead, one’s social standing hinges on how much they down at the bar and whom they beat-up, which helps create a strong and surreal atmosphere. Initially though with this type of mentality I thought the setting should’ve been Texas and not California as when most people think of Cali they connect it with rich Hollywood stars and Malibu mansions when in reality that’s only a portion of the state and on the east end it’s much more rustic with a far more blue collar attitude and the movie does a good job of exposing this. 

It’s fun to see Eastwood not taking himself so seriously and being laid-back even smiling versus having him constantly look at everybody with his patented squinty-eyed stare. In support I though Ruth Gordon was great. Usually she plays ditzy old dames, but here she’s crusty and ornery and the segment where this ‘vulnerable old woman’ single-handedly shoots-up the biker gang when they invade her property is the movie’s highpoint. Bevery D’Angelo quite good too playing a free-spirited flower child named Echo. While she doesn’t have anything funny to say it’s nice having a character who’s quiet and subdued to help balance all the other wackiness. 

The script though is in desperate search for a story that never really transpires. Too much hinges on random events strung together by the thinnest of threads versus being connected by actual motivations and momentum. Having Eastwood, a tall and intimidating looking guy, constantly getting harassed for no reason, doesn’t make a lot of sense. The biker gang should’ve hounded him because they were hired by someone who lost to him in a fight and was bitter about it and the cop could’ve been hassling him because he lost a bet on one of his fights and thus wanted some compensation. While these may not be deep and profound motives at least they give a reason for what’s happening versus having things strung together by a lot of disconnected events that come out of nowhere. 

Spoiler Alert!

Sondra Locke though almost saves it. Her hyper and sarcastic personality makes for a nice contrast to Eastwood’s, and I liked how he pursues her as a love interest only to ultimately realize that she’s a psycho and he’d be better off without her. Most other movies have the concept that ‘lover conquers all’ and you’re better off with someone, even if they’re seriously flawed, than without, so having this movie take the alternative viewpoint is a refreshing change of pace and thus deserves some credit. 

My Rating: 4 out of 10

Released: December 20, 1978

Runtime: 1 Hour 55 Minutes

Rated PG

Director: James Fargo

Studio: Warner Brothers

Available: DVD, Blu-ray, Amazon Video, YouTube

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Tootsie (1982)

Posted on February 3, 2025 | 1 comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 7 out of 10

4-Word Review: Pretending to be female.

Michael (Dustin Hoffman) is a talented actor but having difficulty finding employment due to his demanding nature and inability to get along with directors. His friend Sandy (Teri Garr) is auditioning for a part in a soap opera, and he helps her prepare for the role and even takes her to the audition only to learn that she was rejected before given any chance to do a screentest. It’s at this same time that he learns his agent George (Sydney Pollack) hasn’t gotten him a chance to audition for another role because in his words ‘no one will work with him’. Michael then decides to disguise himself as a woman named Dorothy Michaels in an effort to get the role that Sandy was turned down for so as to raise money to produce a play that will star Sandy. While he does get the part, he also becomes a big star with everyone believing that Dorothy really is a woman, which cause many complications in both his personal and professional life making him feel like he wants to end the charade and go back to his normal identity, but not quite sure how to do it. 

The genesis for the story began all the way back in 1970 and was based on an off-Broadway play by Don McGuire titled ‘Would I Lie to You?’ about an out of work stage actor who dresses as a woman to get a big part. Director Dick Richards adapted the plot into a screenplay, and it got shopped around for many years, but to no avail. Then in 1980 cross-dressing actor Christopher Morley played the role of a woman named Sally Armitage in the soap opera ‘General Hospital’. The part was played straight with the viewers under the impression that it really was a female, and Sally even gained the romantic interest from the character Luke, played by Anthony Geary, only to eventually reveal that she was really a man, which was a ratings hit and thus lead to renewed interest in this script. Eventually Dustin Hoffman got a hold of it and decided he wanted to take it on under the condition that was given full creative control and even hired his own people, Larry Gelbert and Murra Schisgal, to rewrite the story to his liking. 

Personally, my favorite parts of the film come at the beginning where we see Michael’s struggles as an actor as well as all of his thespian friends giving one a glimpse at just how hard the business is and how few people can make an actual living in it. Watching both him and his roommate Jeff, played by Bill Murray, working as waiters, but still talking about their acting ambitions while on that job was on-target. Garr gives a great performance as a struggling would-be actress who is full of insecurities and letdowns and a perfect composite of many young women who find the auditioning process grueling and thankless and for this reason, I felt she should’ve won the Oscar instead of Jessica Lange as her part as the love interest wasn’t as interesting, or honest. 

Murray is terrific as the roommate in an unusual part for him as his over-the-top clownish, snarky, frat boy persona is kept under wraps and instead he plays the part straight, but his sardonic responses to things are great. Director Pollack, who took on the role of Michael’s agent at the request of Hoffman and thus making it his first acting role in almost 20 years, is quite good too particularly with how his exasperated nature feeds off of Hoffman’s hyper one and their conversation inside his office is the movie’s highlight. Charles Durning has a few key moments as well playing Lange’s lovesick father who begins to fall for Dorothy though any man that would give a woman an engagement ring before they’d even been out on a single date has to be a bit loopy.

Hoffman falls into the woman role easily and it would be hard to recognize him had the viewer not known about the disguise beforehand though I felt the way Dorothy walked and moved her hands and arms made her seem like Mrs. Butterworth the animated character from the maple syrup commercials. It’s also hard to imagine he wouldn’t have been found out a lot sooner especially since he collected a weekly paycheck from the company, which would’ve required him to give them his social security number, which in-turn would’ve exposed who he really was. Being on magazine covers where he supposedly does interviews as Dorothy should’ve been equally problematic as the reporters would’ve asked him (her) about her past like what other stuff did she act in, where was she from, and where did she graduate. Stuff that’s very much standard questions in any interview and when he (she) couldn’t come up with anything or made-up stuff that could easily be background checked would’ve then raised red flags and brought the ruse to a very quick halt.

Spoiler Alert!

Soap operas were no longer broadcast as live and hadn’t been since 1963, so that story angle doesn’t fly either. Yes, I realize the idea was that it was taped and only had to done live as an emergency when one of the tapes got destroyed, but in reality, the taping would’ve been done so far ahead (usually by several weeks) that even if a video did somehow get corrupted there still should’ve been plenty of time to refilm it before reaching the actual air date. 

The ending it a bit disappointing as well. Sure, it’s nice seeing Lange putting her arm around him as they walk down the sidewalk showing that the two had made up after his secret identity was exposed, but it doesn’t answer what happened to his career. He did this whole thing to help finance a play for Sandy, so what became of that? Also, were casting agents so impressed with the way he fooled everybody that they now were willing to hire him, or was he still blacklisted? These were all major motivations for why he did the ruse, so there should’ve been clarity to what became of it. 

My Rating: 7 out of 10

Released: December 17, 1982

Runtime: 1 Hour 56 Minutes

Rated PG

Director: Sydney Pollack

Studio: Columbia Pictures

Available: DVD, Blu-ray, Amazon Video, YouTube

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Posted in 80's Movies, Academy Award Winners for Best Supporting Actress, Comedy, Movies Based on Stageplays, Movies that take place in the Big Apple, Romance

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The Chocolate War (1988)

Posted on January 29, 2025 | Leave a comment

chocolate

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 7 out of 10

4-Word Review: Teen challenges the hierarchy.

Jerry (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) is the new student at an all-boys Catholic School that finds himself insnared into a controversy that wasn’t of his making. Brother Leon (John Glover), the school’s headmaster, promotes a program in which all the students must sell a certain allotment of chocolates in order to bring in much needed revenue for the school. While it’s technically voluntary the students are strongly pressured to take part in it and all of them do except for Jerry who for ten days refuses to get involved. This it turns out was the result of a hazing ritual brought on by a secret fraternity of students known as The Vigils. The idea was for Jerry to prove himself as being mentally strong enough to join the group by standing up to the intimidating Leon. Leon though becomes aware of what’s going on and since he’s in close contact with Archie (Wally Langham), the Vigil’s leader, he forgives the action convinced that once the 10-days are up Jerry will conform like all the others and take part in the sales drive. However, to everyone’s shock this doesn’t happen. Instead, Jerry continues to rebel, and his nonconformity has an infectious quality causing other students to take part, which challenges the strength of the school’s hierarchy to keep everyone in line. 

The film is based on the 1974 novel of the same name by Robert Cormier, which many critics have deemed one of the best young adult novels every written, but also one that routinely shows up as being on the top 10 list of banned or challenged books in high school libraries. It marks the directorial debut of Keith Gordon, who up until this time was better known for his acting particularly his starring role in the horror classic Christine. As a director I think he does a splendid job. I loved the eclectic camera angles, the zooms and hand-held shots. The soundtrack is distinctive featuring songs by artists who allowed their music to be used at a significantly lower price due to the movie’s low budget. The on-location shooting done at an abandoned seminary in Kenmore, Washington is perfect with the gray and dreary Northwest late autumn landscape perfectly reflecting the grim characters and situation. 

The acting is impeccable especially Glover who creates a three-dimensional villain who’s bullying at times, but at other points nervous and insecure. Mitchell-Smith, whose teen heart throb appearance belies is high-pitched voice, which I’ve never cared for and the reason I believe his acting career didn’t last, is quite good mainly because he isn’t forced to say much and instead relies on his reactions to what goes on around him, which in that element he excels. Langham is the perfect composite of the preppie bully particularly with that hairstyle that has ‘attitude’ written all over it, but his best moment is when he picks at a pimple on his arm after he gets off the phone with someone. I had noticed it during his conversation and was almost stunned when he picked at it. So many other teen movies show adolescents with unblemished skin, with maybe only a few geeky kids that have acne, but here one of the ‘cool’ kids was shown with it, which coupled with him actually trying to squeeze, which teens in reality will do, was genuinely groundbreaking and not something I’ve ever seen in any movie before or since. 

While there’s many memorable moments there’s a few loopholes as well. The fact that the students didn’t have any locks on their lockers, and thus allowing the Vigils to put trash into Jerry’s locker, didn’t seem valid as virtually every high school I’ve been in, past or present, does. The running segment dealing with Jerry and his father receiving harassing anonymous calls is quite dated due to now having caller ID, but even then, they could’ve still called the authorities to have their phone line tapped and thus the calls would’ve been traced, which is something you’d think they’d ultimately would do as it continued to occur. It’s also unclear how the students are able to sell the boxes of chocolates and achieve such a high quota. The film intimates they’re using unscrupulous methods, but not explicit enough as to the exact method. 

Spoiler Alert!

The film’s most controversial moment, and one that may have led to it doing poorly at the box office, is the way it changes the original ending. In the book Jerry gets defeated by Archie in the climactic boxing match, but in the movie, Jerry wins, and Archie is subsequently replaced as The Vigil’s leader. Personally, both endings have interesting nuances, so I can’t say I favor one over the other though the movie version does bring out some intriguing elements. However, fans of the novel tend to hate it feeling it was an attempt by Hollywood to give the story a more ‘uplifting’ conclusion. 

My Rating: 7 out of 10

Released: November 18, 1988

Runtime: 1 Hour 40 Minutes

Rated R

Director: Keith Gordon

Studio: MCEG

Available: DVD, Blu-ray, PlutoTV, Tubi

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The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984)

Posted on January 26, 2025 | 1 comment

pope

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 7 out of 10

4-Word Review: Cousins turn to crime.

Charlie (Mickey Rourke) and Paulie (Eric Roberts) are cousins working at a restaurant who get themselves fired when Paulie is caught skimming checks. Since Charlie’s girlfriend Diane (Daryl Hannah) has a baby on the way he must act fast to bring in some money. Paulie convinces him of a ‘great’ opportunity, which is to hire a former safecracker, now working as a clock repairman, Barney (Kenneth McMillan) to break-open a safe inside the building of a large company that reportedly has a large amount of money inside it. Charlie is cautious as he doesn’t completely trust Paulie whom he finds immature and unseasoned, but he’s so desperate that he reluctantly agrees. Things go smoothly at first, as they’re able to break into the building easily, but the unexpected arrival of undercover cop Walter (Jack Kehoe) soon sends their plans awry. When Walter dies during the melee they’re now on the hook for his death as well as in the bad graces of mob boss Eddie (Burt Young) who’s safe it was that they tried to rob. 

The film is based off of the 1979 novel of the same name by Vincent Patrick who also penned the screenplay. It does an excellent job of creating a vivid feel of Greenwich Village where it was shot on-location and the interactions of the characters seem overall authentic. The only real issue is the way it hinges of extreme Italian American stereotypes where it seems like anyone from that background must be involved in crime and if any other group was portrayed that way it would be deemed problematic if not downright controversial. The cliches are so strong that had it been heightened just a small degree it could’ve been deemed as parody, or even satire and in fact IMDb does list it as being a ‘comedy’ though I really don’t think that’s the case. I believe it’s meant to be a drama, but either way, for the sake of balance, it would’ve helped had there been some Italians even just one who didn’t fall into the tired caricatures. 

The acting is the crowning achievement. Roberts is superb and I really found it hard to believe he didn’t become a star from this. While he’s always been a great character actor I think he should’ve been given more and I do realize he’s still busy in the business and has been consistently, but I don’t think the quality of the parts has always been there and most filmgoers are probably more familiar with his sister Julia, which is a shame. I was completely blow away by him here and genuinely surprised why the Oscar didn’t fall into his lap.

Rourke is excellent too, but more because he wisely underplays his role and allows Roberts to carry all the emotional energy. Had they both been competing for it it would’ve failed, but their different approaches help create a nice contrast and sometimes it’s the best actors who don’t force it and for the most part that’s what Rourke does here. Of course, he too has his moments like when they go to the racetrack, and he bumps into a guy and instead saying ‘excuse me’ like a normal person he instead says, ‘out of my way asshole’. Him beating up on his refrigerator when Diane leaves him has a memorable quality to it though I would’ve thought the fridge would’ve been more damaged and he should’ve at the very least injured his hand, which strangely doesn’t occur despite him punching at it repeatedly.  

On the female end most accolades goes to Geraldine Page who got nominated for the supporting Oscar despite having only 8-minutes of screentime. She gives a powerful performance for her limited presence, but the idea that she could stymie police efforts to search her deceased son’s room by giving veiled threats that she’ll make them look bad in the media I didn’t totally buy. If cops want something bad enough, they’ll get it with the possible exception of money exchanging hands, which in this case didn’t happen. Hannah as the girlfriend has almost the same screentime, maybe a little more, and hits the bullseye as an idealistic young woman who believes she can somehow get her boyfriend to change only to learn the ultimate harsh lesson that it doesn’t work that way. 

Spoiler Alert!

The ending I felt was a letdown. I was actually intrigued with Charlie finding the tape from the deceased cop that implicated Eddie and seeing how he could use that to stay out of trouble for being a part of the robbery. Having Paulie then swoop in by putting lye into Eddie’s drink and poisoning him seemed too easy. Eddie had just gotten done having his men cut-off Paulie’s thumb, so he should expect Paulie would be looking for revenge and not naive enough to have him make his drinks, or if he does at least have one of his henchmen taste it first. You have to wonder how Eddie was able to climb up the crime ladder if he was that stupid and thus the climax really isn’t that clever, or surprising as the camera focuses up-close on the coffee cup making it too evident that something is going to happen. A letdown for a movie that had been relatively smart up until then.  

My Rating: 7 out of 10

Released: June 22, 1984

Runtime: 2 Hours

Rated R

Director: Stuart Rosenberg

Studio: MGM/UA

Available: DVD, Blu-ray, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi, PlutoTV

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Posted in 80's Movies, Buddy Movies, Gangster Movies, Movies Based on Novels, Movies that take place in the Big Apple

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Avalanche Express (1979)

Posted on January 24, 2025 | Leave a comment

avalanche2

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 2 out of 10

4-Word Review: Defector on a train.

Based on the 1977 Colin Forbes novel of the same name the story centers around General Marenkov (Robert Shaw) a soviet agent who’s decided to defect to the west. Harry (Lee Marvin) is the CIA agent in charge of extraditing Marenkov back to the U.S., but to do so they must travel via train across Europe. Nikolai (Maximilian Schell) is a KGB agent assigned to stop Marenkov’s escape and tries many ways to stymie his trip before finally settling on creating an avalanche, which will not only impede the train ride that Marenkov and Harry are on, but if done right should completely destroy it and end the lives of everyone inside.

The film was noted for its many difficulties during the shoot including the death of its director Mark Robson from a heart attack with only 2-weeks left of filming forcing Monte Hellman to step in and complete the production. The biggest problem though was that during the post-production it was deemed that the opening scene, which featured Shaw speaking to his soviet counterparts in broken English, should be redone with Russian dialogue. However, Shaw too had already died from a sudden heart attack in August and thus was no longer able to come-in for reshoots, so they settled on his voice being dubbed by Robert Rietti for that scene. This would’ve been fine had they stopped there, but instead they came to the conclusion that for the sake of consistency Shaw’s voice should be dubbed by Rietti for the entire film, which was a huge mistake.

Shaw has a highly distinctive and wonderfully articulate delivery and for the viewer to miss out on that is downright criminal. I think most audiences could’ve forgiven that his voice sounded a bit different during the opening bit and probably wouldn’t have even cared or noticed since they were so busy focusing on the subtitles anyway. It becomes like a bait and switch, since Shaw’s name headlines the cast, but since somebody else does his speaking it’s like he’s not really in it and thus a big rip-off to his fans who came to see the movie simply because of him.

The special effects are equally abhorrent. There’s been many movies that have created fake snow scenes, but this one has to be the cheapest looking one yet. The falling flakes look more like Styrofoam and the white stuff on the ground resembles foam from a bathtub especially as the vehicles slush their way through it like it’s a white liquid. The sequence showing the train gliding down the tracks is clearly of the miniature variety and will fool no one.

The casting is a mess too especially the appearance of Joe Namath, a great football player, but a threadbare actor who has no business being in a big budget Hollywood picture. He’d be okay for a TV-movie with other B-performers, but for something that’s supposed to be taken seriously his presence makes the thing even more tacky than it already is. Even stalwart leading man Marvin fails here as he shows no emotion even when it’s warranted, like when he gets word that train they’re on is headed for disaster and yet he remains hyper stoic like he’s a robot with no feelings. Having him get shot dead early on only to return later isn’t the gotcha they thought it would be as I was predicting he’d reappear as there’s simply no way a big-name star like him would sign onto a movie just to be killed off right away.

Linda Evans is good simply because she has the ability of playing a cold, bitchy lady quite well. It could almost be described as her forte and her snippy comments and icy behavior towards Marvin during the first half are engaging and helps give the proceedings a bit of a dramatic flair. Turning the two into lovers though during the second half ruins all the underlying tension and since they don’t share much of a chemistry anyways having them remain adversarial throughout would’ve worked better.

Schell as the villain is as cardboard as he was playing the bad guy in The Black Hole. His career is long and distinguished, but his success is clearly not in these types of roles though he does at least get the film’s one good line. It comes when he’s told he must go undercover in disguise by playing someone who does not smoke. Since his character is a chain smoker, he panics that he won’t be able to go on without a cigarette and exclaims “That’ll kill me’.

My Rating: 2 out of 10

Released: October 19, 1979

Runtime: 1 Hour 28 Minutes

Rated PG

Director: Mark Robson

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Available: DVD-R (Warner Archive), Amazon Video, YouTube

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Posted in 70's Movies, Cold Climate/Wintertime Movies, Disaster Flicks, Movies Based on Novels, Movies with a train setting, Spy/Espionage

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Johnny Dangerously (1984)

Posted on January 21, 2025 | Leave a comment

johnnydangerously

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 3 out of 10

4-Word Review: From newsboy to gangster.

Young Johnny (Byron Thames) must find some income to help his mother (Maureen Stapleton) with her medical expenses. He catches the eye of Jocko (Peter Boyle) a notorious gangster who offers him odd crime jobs to do part-time and Johnny takes him up on it but feels guilty. The years pass and a grown-up Johnny (Micheal Keaton) finds that his mother’s health hasn’t improved, and the bills continue, so he decides to get into the gangster business full-time and even takes over as head of the gang once run by Jocko. The money is so good that it not only covers everything his mother could need but also helps his younger brother Tommy (Griffin Dunne) get through law school. However, once Tommy graduates, he gets a job at the D.A. office where becomes committed to stamp out corruption and put all criminals behind bars even if it would mean his older brother.

The pace and structure are modeled after the more successful Airplane movies in which the light plot works as a platform for a barrage of rapid-fire jokes and pratfalls mostly satirizing gangster movies from the ’30’s. While Airplane came off as fresh and funny as it poked fun of all the disaster movies from the ’70’s this thing seems old and tired before it’s barely even begun. The biggest issue is that gangsters had already been parodied for many years both in TV and on the big screen. By the time this movie came-out most of the jokes had already been used many times over and the comedy fails to create anything inventive. The characters are nothing more than walking-talking cliches that mouth banal one-liners and not much else. Almost all the jokes fall flat, nothing sticks and has no edge to it. It’s something that could’ve easily been made for TV and it should be no surprise that the writers were two men who helped create the ‘Different Strokes’ TV-show.

What surprised me most is that it wasn’t even dirty, or at least not that much. It’s directed by Amy Heckerling who had just gotten done doing Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which seemed to have bawdiness and sexual innuendoes in almost every frame and yet here there’s surprisingly very little. Yes, there’s an animated segment dealing with victims of enlarge scrotums, which doesn’t have much to do with the story, but is kind of amusing, but that’s about it. Some more sex and even nudity could’ve helped enliven things, or at the very least given something more to laugh it. The malapropisms by the gangster character Moronie, played by Richard Dimitri, where he uses a lot of colorful language that sounds like curse words, but really aren’t I didn’t find to be clever at all. Today words like fuck and fucking are used liberally in social media and even casual daily conversations. I even hear young neighborhood kids saying it, so for a movie to think that it’s ‘pushing the envelope’ by having someone use phrases the sound like the F-word but aren’t makes the movie seem quite dated.

I didn’t care for Keaton. He comes-off like some smart ass who’s phoning in his performance with a pasted-on smile that never leaves his face. It’s like he isn’t even acting or trying to create any type of character. He just casually walks on, makes a semi-amusing remark, and then walks-off. Thames who played the younger version of Johnny was better and the movie could’ve been more engaging had Johnny remained a kid the whole way and then watching an innocent teen take down the gangsters and even ultimately become their leader would’ve had some original spin that’s otherwise lacking.

Joe Piscopo, who plays Johnny’s criminal rival, is quite good and as opposed to Keaton, seems to be making some sort of effort to play a role and I thought he should’ve been in it more, or even just given the reins and taken over completely. The film’s promotional poster makes it seem like the two will have equal screentime, but that’s shockingly not the case and Joe’s presence amounts to a few walk-ons, which is a shame.

The rest of the supporting cast are equally wasted. Marilu Henner sings a nice dance number but otherwise doesn’t do or say anything else that’s interesting. Stapleton looks way too old for the role of a mother and would be more suited as a grandmother. At one point she even refers to herself as being ’29’ despite having gray hair. Don’t know if this was meant to be a ‘funny joke’, but it doesn’t work and is dumb like most everything else. Dunne is miscast as well. He’s supposed to be this young idealist but appears much more like someone already in their 30’s and would’ve been more authentic had they gotten a college aged student with a wide-eyed, clean-cut image versus Dunne who’s always had more of a weary and beaten down impression. Dom Deluise though is the most out-of-place in a part that amounts to being a cameo as the Pope who appears inexplicably on a city sidewalk for some strange reason that misses-the-mark completely in a gag that like everything else gets thrown-in with little thought, or care.

I did do enjoy Danny DeVito who amazes me how even when given small roles still manage to steal the proceedings especially with his impromptu hosting of a game show send-up. I’ll even give a few props to the ‘pass the secret message’ segment done inside a jail where one prisoner whispers something into another prisoner’s ear, who then passes it along to yet another guy and so forth down the line until it gets to the last one where the initial message has now become completely distorted, which got me to laugh, but honestly that was the only time during the whole viewing that I did.

My Rating: 3 out of 10

Released: December 21, 1984

Runtime: 1 Hour 30 Minutes

Rated PG-13

Director: Amy Heckerling

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Available: DVD

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Posted in 80's Movies, Campy Comedy, Gangster Movies, Parody

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A Private Function (1984)

Posted on January 18, 2025 | Leave a comment

privatefunction

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 6 out of 10

4-Word Review: Couple hides a pig.

The year is 1947 and even though the war has been over for 2 years there’s still food rationing going on in this small England town. Gilbert (Michael Palin) works as a podiatrist and travels to residential homes where he cuts the toenails of the women who live there. During some of his visits he comes upon families who are hiding meat in their homes, and they must rush to cover-up any evidence of it when the local food inspector (John Normington) comes around to investigate. One such home has been illegally raising a pig in hopes to use it for a private party to celebrate the upcoming Royal Wedding between Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip. Gilbert tells his wife Joyce (Maggie Smith) about it, and she convinces him to steal the pig, so that they can sell it off to the bacon black market but trying to hide a pig from both their neighbors as well as Joyce’s noisy elderly mother (Liz Smith) let alone being able to kill it proves quite challenging.

The film is a perfect mix of droll English humor and quirky moments. It starts out with a very original idea and manages to add one amusing moment, or sly comment, after the other becoming one of the better foreign comedies of the year where you can pick-up on funny little things that you might’ve missed on the first viewing, each time you watch it. Palin is especially good as a timid man who finds himself in the middle of chaos that he didn’t want and his unique profession along with the giant plastic foot that he orders to help represent his business are all on-target as are his engagingly consternated facial expressions.

Initially I thought Smith, a two-time Academy Award winner, was wasted here as she isn’t seen much during the first act and pushed mainly to the background making it seem almost like a token role that doesn’t have much pizazz, but she comes on strong by the end by having an interesting arch where she is just a passive, doting wife at first, but proves to be quite controlling, conniving and even demanding by the end. Liz Smith is equally engaging as the sometimes-confused aging mother ‘she’s 74’ whose dialogue is limited, but the few lines that she does say are doozies.

Spoiler Alert!

The pig though becomes the main star even though behind-the-scenes it made things quite difficult to film. This led to one 12-year-old boy getting his ‘big break’ into show business. When he heard that they were going to be making a movie in his area he proudly proclaimed that he’d be ‘willing to do anything’ in order to ‘get into the movies’ so the producer handed him a pail and told him to follow the pig around and collect its droppings every time it defecated and for this he got his name proudly billed during the final credits as ‘the bucket boy’.

As pigs go this one struck me as being quite small. Apparently, this was intentional as the filmmakers were advised by animal experts to choose a 6-month-old female pig as it was deemed, they’d be easier to control and less unpredictable, but visually she looked too scrawny and certainly not the type of pig to be used as the centerpiece for a giant feast such as the one that the townspeople were excitedly planning. It’s also a bit of a downer, even depressing, when the animal is eventually killed and served up on a platter. There’s a lot of close calls where the animal evades death and it makes it seem almost like the human captors were ultimately too afraid to do it, but when it does finally occur it hurts the film’s levity and makes it feel like murder when it does die and thus sucks all of the comedy that came before it right out.

The climactic party isn’t eventful either making the story go out with a whimper. It had been relatively lively up to then with all sorts of subtle twists and goofy turns only to end things on a dry note. There needed to be some sort of ultimate confrontation between the couple and the former owners of the pig, so things could’ve ended with more of a bang as it’s not quite able to hold-up feeling almost like it ran out of ideas with an uninspired conclusion.

My Rating: 6 out of 10

Released: November 9, 1984

Runtime: 1 Hour 32 Minutes

Rated R

Director: Malcolm Mowbray

Studio: HandMade Films

Available: DVD

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Posted in 80's Movies, Black Comedy, British Movies, Dry Humor, Foreign Films

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The Out-Of-Towners (1970)

Posted on January 13, 2025 | Leave a comment

outoftowners

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 6 out of 10

4-Word Review: Travel plans go awry. 

George (Jack Lemmon) is set to have an interview in New York City for a possible job promotion with his company. He brings along his wife Gwen (Sandy Dennis) for what he hopes will be a fun-filled trip in which they can explore the new city they hope to eventually relocate in, but things don’t go as planned. Their flight is forced to circle JFK Airport for hours before it’s diverted to the Logan Airport in Boston and then requiring them to take a train ride back to the Big Apple causing them to arrive there very late. Once they do make it, they find their hotel reservations expired since they hadn’t thought to call or wire, to tell them to hold it. They’re then mugged, and while being escorted by police to a local armory, where they plan on spending the night, they become involved with two liquor store robbers who hijack the squad car they’re in and force them out into Central Park in the middle of the night. This then leads to several more calamities, but despite everything George manages to somehow make it to his interview on time, but when offered the position he’s now not so sure he wants to accept it. 

Originally writer Neil Simon was planning on using this concept as a segment to his 1968 play Plaza Suite, but since that play was already divided up into three other segments it was deemed too many and thus this one got thrown out. He then tried making it into its own stage play but realized it would require too many different set pieces and ultimately came to the conclusion it would work better as a movie. Unlike his other works this one does not rely on dialogue for its primary humor as instead the intended laughs come from the situations, but it’s more like a dumb comedy in that what occurs isn’t all that clever, or original and relies solely on the exasperated reactions of the characters. 

Some of it goes overboard particularly an underground gas explosion that blows a manhole cover that George is standing on into the air and temporarily causes him to lose his hearing, which I found quite disturbing. What’s worse is that the cover comes crashing down just inches from George’s head, which could’ve been fatal and was apparently a mistake as it was intended to go up only a few feet and thus it could’ve really killed him had it hit him, but being the trooper that Lemmon was he remained in character despite the issue. However, exploding gas lines don’t happen that often giving the film an unintended surreal quality, or a piling-on effect and for that reason I would’ve excised that segment completely from the movie. 

The characters aren’t that lovable especially George who comes-off as what would be called today as a female Karen, or ‘Kevin’ as he complains about everything right from the start making him obnoxious and annoying. Had the character shown a laid-back Midwestern mentality, since that’s where he’s from, and been more congenial about things, only to finally get exasperated at the very end as it built up, would’ve worked better as by that time the audience could’ve forgiven him after what they’ve been through, but having him be so quick tempered already at the beginning doesn’t allow for any character arch and having him constantly threaten to sue everyone who has wronged him quickly becomes redundant. Sandy Dennis is better as she takes things in more of a strident fashion and makes a healthy contrast to George. The small bit parts made-up of a recognizable B-list actors are fun though they should’ve been given more amusing things to say. 

Spoiler Alert!

The overall point of the story is muddled. Supposedly it’s a harsh assessment on New York, but the couple’s problems aren’t exclusive to the city as they have issues when they go to Boston and even on their plane ride back when it gets hijacked to Cuba making it seem more like a cursed trip versus a nightmare place. Taking potshots at NYC isn’t hard either as most people have complaints about it even those that have lived there for their whole lives making the premise too obvious. A much more original idea that could’ve given it a fresher perspective would’ve had the couple already living in New York, but tired of the crime and rundown urban conditions, so they decide to move to a small Midwestern town but find unexpected problems at every turn and thus return to the city where they conclude that despite the less-than-ideal elements they’re still better off. 

My Rating: 6 out of 10

Released: May 28, 1970

Runtime: 1 Hour 37 Minutes

Rated G

Director: Arthur Hiller

Studio: Paramount

Available: DVD, Blu-ray (Reg. B/2), Amazon Video, YouTube

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Posted in 70's Movies, Black Comedy, Movies that take place in the Big Apple

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